{"id":8078,"date":"2020-08-28T03:13:37","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T07:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=8078"},"modified":"2020-08-28T03:13:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T07:13:37","slug":"seaside-park-may-consider-regulations-on-backyard-fire-pits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2020\/08\/seaside-park-may-consider-regulations-on-backyard-fire-pits\/","title":{"rendered":"Seaside Park May Consider Regulations on Backyard Fire Pits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Seaside<\/a>

Seaside Park water tower. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Members of the Seaside Park borough council on Thursday said they plan to look into an ordinance that could regulate fire pits, which have become popular in borough backyards in recent years.<\/p>\n

On the table: whether residents can have them, where they can be placed on a property, what can be burned in them, and the fuel for burning. The discussion was prompted by a letter written to the mayor and council complaining about the safety of residential fire pits, Mayor John A. Peterson said. Councilman William Kraft said he shared concerns about wood-burning fire pits.<\/p>\n

\u201cPropane and natural gas still has the ambiance without the odor of the burning wood,\u201d said Kraft. \u201cPeople should be more mindful of their neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

His concerns, specifically, surround the placement of fire pits. In the past, he said he has seen fire pits located close to buildings, sometimes burning commercial construction wood with flames shooting feet into the air.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, regulations on fire pits will come down to a question of legality and how far the borough can go to regulate them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of municipalities that have regulations,\u201d said Borough Attorney Steven Zabarsky. \u201cBasically, most of the ordinances have to do with the size of the fire, the location of the fire, and whether there needs to be a cover on the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surf City, located on Long Beach Island, has a robust such ordinance, Zabarsky said, and he would look there for guidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurf City has a pretty good one, so that might be a good start \u2013 it has to be clean wood or propane, so we can start from there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Beyond legal considerations, council members will also have to decide the role the borough should have in regulating what a person does in his or her backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a topic that needs a lot of review,\u201d said Council President Matthew DeMichele. \u201cLocation-wise, it really depends on where people are placing them. I think there should be something that we can do to keep people safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson suggested that an ordinance \u201cat the very least\u201d should mandate fires be 10 feet from the nearest structure. But there may not be complete agreement on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe little fire pit tables people have, I think, are relatively harmless,\u201d said Councilwoman Faith Liguori. \u201cObviously it\u2019s a fire so people have to have common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seaside Park will \u201cweight the pros and cons from other municipalities,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps we could put this on the front burner, pardon the pun, as a future work session item,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Seaside Park borough council on Thursday said they plan to look into an ordinance that could regulate fire pits, which have become popular in borough backyards in recent years. On the table: whether residents can have them, where they can be placed on a property, what can be burned in them, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,6,5],"tags":[170,32],"class_list":["post-8078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-seaside-government","category-seaside-heights","tag-fire-pit","tag-seaside-park-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/seaside_park_water_tower.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-26i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}